What is up with all this left handed bats? Dam ! It seems that the only way to get a right handed power hitter would be to move the green monster to right field.What are they thinking? Iknow they have a good offense but a times it burns them with being so tilted to the left side of the plate.

Lavarnway will be a power RH bat in this years lineup. Youk is a pretty good RH stick, Salty hits from both sides. Scutaro is a pretty good hitter. Pedroia has a very good bat. That's potentially 4 or 5 RH bats.

Would you want Andruw added as a RH bat? I agree we are soft on RH power.

Next year if Ortiz is gone they may add a capable RH DH if they don't use Lav there.

Lavarnway will start the season as the everyday catcher in Pawtucket...granted I'm sure we will see him a few times, a call up when an injury happens and definitely when roster's expand. But he will not be a RH bat in the lineup to begin the season.

Also for what it's worth Ellsbury is one of our best LHP hitting LHH in the lineup behind Ortiz, except Ellsbury seems to be more consistent where is Ortiz's splits seem to go up and down year by year. I know the prospect of trading Ellsbury or keeping him is a whole new debate, but without getting into that I hope we keep him (or at least get a RHH who can really mash LHP)

I do think there is a good possibility of RHH coming from within...if Lavarnway looks better behind the plate he may be the new catcher by next year and I'm sure he will be contributing from the bench/DH/pinch hitter by years end. If he doesn't look good but is still mashing the ball I'm sure he will replace Ortiz next year and maybe even spend some time at 1B (to back up and possibly increase his trade value)

Lets not forget about Saltalamacchia. Last year was the most playing time he's seen, and this year will likely be his first real true full year. considering his age and talent he really could have a great year (I'm talking like .265/.315/.450 and hit 20HR). COULD, but Salty also has weak splits, and doesn't seem to hit well from the right side of the plate.

So Lavy is the best internal solution in the near term.

Other internal solutions in the near distant future include: Middlebrooks but he will be replacing a RH bat anyways....but if Brandon Jacobs or Bryce Brentz merge as a viable solution in RF then that is a RH bat addition to the lineup.

Sign Andruw Jones. He platoons in right and gives you RH power off the bench. His average might not be great, and that brings down his slugging percentage, but his HR per at bat numbers place him in the top 10 in baseball, or something like that. I saw the stats somewhere, and they were impressive.

Sign Andruw Jones. He platoons in right and gives you RH power off the bench. His average might not be great, and that brings down his slugging percentage, but his HR per at bat numbers place him in the top 10 in baseball, or something like that. I saw the stats somewhere, and they were impressive.Posted by parhunter1

Not a big Andrew Jones fan, but he can clearly hit Lefties and his Pull Swing would be devastating in Fenway.....much Better Platoon Choice than DMac in my opinion.

I've been saying all offseason and now that Kalish will miss at least first few months of regular season, why don't we trade for Alfonso Soriano, and Cubs paying 2/3 of his remaining salary as compensation for Theo. If Cubs' asking price for Soriano is acceptable and agree to pay Soriano's 2/3 of remainder, I wouldn't mind Soriano at RF and Sweeney being the 4th OFer. We will have offense and defense at RF.

Four keys to whether RH power hitter is needed for this team (in descending order of importance):

1 - How Papi does v. LHP (are we getting the 2011 version or the 2010? if 2010 version of Ortiz shows up this could really shift the balance)

2 - Can Youk stay on the field for 130+ games and produce like he did prior to last year

3 - Will Bobby V go with L/R platoon at catcher and RF? A true L/R platoon of Salty and Shoppach should produce decent offense at C and a Sweeney/DMac platoon in RF could produced decent if uninspiring numbers in RF (or Kalish + some replacement level RHH).

4 - How Ells performs vs. LHP (last year was his worst year v. LHP and it wasn't too shabby)

I think 3 out of the 4 above would mean this team will be fine v LHP without any major changes. If we have problems with Ortiz and with Youk I think there's trouble ... Lava might be the answer but I think we'll have to see how he does in Pawtucket for the first couple months. Otherwise, I think there will be ample opportunity to address it via trade in June/July. I don't see a need to spend any real money for a RHH as this team is currently configured.

I've been saying all offseason and now that Kalish will miss at least first few months of regular season, why don't we trade for Alfonso Soriano, and Cubs paying 2/3 of his remaining salary as compensation for Theo. If Cubs' asking price for Soriano is acceptable and agree to pay Soriano's 2/3 of remainder, I wouldn't mind Soriano at RF and Sweeney being the 4th OFer. We will have offense and defense at RF.Posted by seannybboi

Why not just have the Cubs pay all of his salary? We all loved Theo so much and were so sad to see him go...the Sox should get a really great player in return for the great GM that they traded to the Cubs.

In Response to Re: Right handed Power Hitter? : Why not just have the Cubs pay all of his salary? We all loved Theo so much and were so sad to see him go...the Sox should get a really great player in return for the great GM that they traded to the Cubs.Posted by traven

Well we also have Aviles and MacDonald until Kalish is ready :)Posted by andrewmitch

Yes. Aviles is playing RF in the winter league and he's preparing to go OF. And we have DMac. But are they offensive batters? 2011 RF problem was offense. Our RFers produced the worst offense in the mjors in 2011. I doubt either Aviles nor DMac be offensive forces.

Sign Andruw Jones. He platoons in right and gives you RH power off the bench. His average might not be great, and that brings down his slugging percentage, but his HR per at bat numbers place him in the top 10 in baseball, or something like that. I saw the stats somewhere, and they were impressive.Posted by parhunter1

Ageed PH1. This is the best guy abvailable and a superb fit for Fenway. I was screaming last year for the Sox to get him.

Except Pujols, there were few right handed hitters that Boston would like to sign, but their asking price were ridiculous too high.

Plus if you look at the top 25 best right handed hitters for the 2011 season, none of these 2012 free agents ranked in the top 25 except Pujols. Next off season free agents, most of the top hitters are mostly left handed hitters. Guess it just happen where there are more talent left handed hitters available during off season than the righties.

If Boston ever want a good talent right handed hitter, they can part away one of their left handed hitter. But who that could be? When I looked at the next off season free agents's listing, most of them are talent lefted handed hitters such as Either, Hamilton, etc.

That was why I just do not want Boston to part away Larvanway or Middlebrook via trade.

I do not like the Soriano idea no matter how much money the Cubs may be willing to pick up to get him out of Chicago. I would think that for about every run he knocked in that he would give one away as the right fielder in Fenway Park. Plus, he is also older now, has lost some baserunning and outfield speed as a result and is more likely to be injured. Like Crawford, I cannot see Soriano willingly moving to RF under any circumstances.Posted by charliedarling

We are not looking for someone who will play 150+ games. We have Sweeney, Aviles, and even DMac. It seems like Aviles will be the utility guy and mainly backup for Youk if something happens to him. Soriano had total of 202 play chances and he made 7 errors. I don't think that's too horrible. Plus we have Sweeney as out 4th OFer. Sweeney can alway step in in the late innings and provide defense when neccessary. All we need from Soriano is offense which he's still good at. He played 137 games last season and put up 26 HRs and 88 RBIs. You do the math with OUR whole RFers in 2011 season. If Sox can get Soriano at around $4-6MM, I won't be complaining him coming over to Boston. And baserunning issue. It's Fenway. We don't even expect Ells to hit triples that many. And we don't need speed.

Sometimes stats don't show the whole picture for sure, but they don't lie. Stats are a reflection of what actually happened on the field. They are not something abstract. They are real.

As for this...

4 - How Ells performs vs. LHP (last year was his worst year v. LHP and it wasn't too shabby)

Don't drink the softy Kool-Aid. Jacoby hit about 90 points better vs LHPs in 2011 than his career average before the season began. Just because he improved by over 200 points vs RHPs in 2011, doesn't make his numbers vs LHPs "his worst year".

.841 is very respectable, and it's possible he can improve on it for 2012. He's always been pretty even vs RHPs and LHPs until 2011. He's brough up his OPS vs LHPs by about 60 points each full year in the bigs. Perhaps he can bring it up close to .900 in 2012.

Lavarnway will be a power RH bat in this years lineup. Youk is a pretty good RH stick, Salty hits from both sides. Scutaro is a pretty good hitter. Pedroia has a very good bat. That's potentially 4 or 5 RH bats. Would you want Andruw added as a RH bat? I agree we are soft on RH power. Next year if Ortiz is gone they may add a capable RH DH if they don't use Lav there. Who knows, maybe they will sign Cespedes for RF??Posted by MadMc44

I don't think the club is too stressed about the lefty heavy line-up. Ortiz mashed lefties last year, and Ellsbury and Gonzalez were very solid. I don't think it is worth a Soriano or a Jones just to have a rightie platoon power bat in the lineup.